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Saturday, October 1, 2011

So I went on vacation to Central Europe for a few weeks. My general rule for vacations is to not wear polish at all. Bring a nail file and some cuticle cream and call it a day. I love nail polish, but not enough to lug around all the equipment and chemicals I need to keep my manis looking presentable.

Still, that means that my nails come home looking worse for wear. Cuticle cream is not enough to protect my forever weak talons from the elements, peeling, my teeth/mouth.

Upon my return home, inspired by

a lady on the subway with THE MOST PERFECT almond shaped nails I have ever seen (so elegant; I swear the look was flawless),

Adele's nude nails at the VMAs, and

the peels going on in the corners of my nails,

I decided to try almond shaped nails.

First came the round phase, which I quite liked. Then, as my nails grew away from the nail bed, I tried ever so slowly to fashion them into a more pointed shape.

This is what they looked like after 3 weeks.

(1 coat Essie Waltz, 1 coat Essie Vanity Fairest)

Yikes. It was even more insanely creepy and weird in person. Turns out, VNL does have the ability to sicken me.

I also hated wearing dark colors with them, drawing attention to these monstrosities. But the nails looked better all hidden away.

(2 coats BBCouture Erotic Night)

My most obvious problem is that my nail beds are too short and flared for this look to work after just one month of trying.

The fact is, I would have needed at least another 3-4 weeks of unbroken nail growth (impossible) to properly pull the look off, and I wasn't willing to deal with the ugly duckling phase in between. Especially since (i) I didn't know if the end result would look good on me and (ii) it would have been impractical anyway, given my keyboard-focused job.

9
comments:

I agree with you, because I have a problem very close to yours: I think this shape looks good on ladies have long nails even when they are short (I can't explain myself better i english, sorry >_<). Also my nails are extremely weak and very short, so a squared shape is the best solution. Should we give up shape experiments? ç__ç

Pleased you're back! Nice though this is, I agree that I like the square/squoval shape on you a lot more. In fact I really envy ladies who can wear their nails really blunt or really pointed, I always end up in the middle. My mum files hers in a almond shape, but she has quite long fingers and nails that are rock hard, so it works. It just looks weird on me. :(

Abut a year ago I filed my nails into an almond shape. They lasted for a few months. Looked lovely but then they all broke off. My nails just don't grow that way naturally. My girlfriends nails do grow in an almond shape. She painted her nails yesterday with Zoya's Anja. Gorgeous. She made a mess and I cleaned up her nails. She usually wears lighter shades. I'm trying to influence her with dark shades. I think your nails look really pretty in the oval shape. My nail beds are short and I so love long nail beds. Hope you come up with a shape you love.

Dude, my Mom can pull off almond shaped nails only because she has these dainty thin fingers with really narrow nail beds.

I've inherited my Dad's squarer wider nail shape and a squoval is probably it for me.

And whoa you are brave going on vacay with nothing. I carry a mini of Essie's Mademoiselle and the barielle mani extender while away, or I trash my nails beyond recognition. I essentially touch it up at the edges as needed; I may splurge on cheapo remover on a slow night and redo it once a week as needed after that.

I always do my nails almond shape - that is how they 'like' to grow for the most part anyway. I have a few fingers that will grow out on the side more squared if they get that long - but the rest always curve almond. It's my fav shape (had mine almond even when I did acrylics in the 80's and early 90's. I dislike squared off tips - they look fake to me. Yours look great this shape and I adore them this length! This is the perfect length for today esp in terms of what is in vogue. Long daggers are out - esp runway.